Any talk about them doing away with Aether Currents for flight

[linayar]

The other thing is that, especially for people who joined the game with 5.3, the Aether current system doesn't feel like a reward for doing something, it feels like an obstacle between you and something that you've had in ARR zones ever since you completed ARR's MSQ; it feels more like you're being punished for continuing the story by having flight taken away than it does that you're being given flight for completing something.

I can understand that view if FFXIV has a seamless open world, but the instanced nature of the zones allows you to differentiate between zones where you've unlocked flying and zones where you've never unlocked flying. So you're not punished because nothing that you've unlocked has been taken away.

You don't unlock flying. You unlock flying in specific zones and can unlock flying in future zones.

[not_ya_wify]

I think the point of aether currents is that you can't fly into areas you're not supposed to reach until the story let's you. But they could just put that aether current in the main story quests and be done with it. I especially hate it when the aether current is in a hard to reach spit or hidden

[Bright-Flower]

I think the point of aether currents is that you can't fly into areas you're not supposed to reach until the story let's you. But they could just put that aether current in the main story quests and be done with it. I especially hate it when the aether current is in a hard to reach spit or hidden

I think a couple are more obtuse than they need to be, like in the Lochs where you need to go around about a third of a zone to get to the right ledge from the right angle etc.

The vast majority of them though are easy to just get while doing the msq through the zones.

[TaleraRistain]

I would miss them. I like the little puzzles some have. That original one in CWH and the one in the Lochs are my favorites because you had to figure things out.

I don't like the ones that start from first quest of the side quest lines, like others have said. I'd rather do that whole quest all at once. So I'm in the camp for either single quests that unlock the current or single quests that unlock the areas where the current is found.

[Unholychinchilla]

I'll be honest, they appeal to the collector in me. I like hunting them down as I quest in a zone for the first time and seeing the diamonds fill on the aether current window. Just don't do anything like that Lochs one again.

I do agree that I don't like them on the first step of a quest chain, however. Would much rather the quest ones be kept to MSQ and stand alone quests.

[Kes13a]

I dont mind hunting for aether currents.

perhaps you would prefer WoW's version, faction, dungeons, raids, basically a full time job just to unlock flying?

hard pass on that.

aether currents are fine.

[Artemiz]

I'm not the biggest fan of aether currents to be honest, I kind of appreciate that without them we'd all just fly from point to point and never really experience the zone in any depth but I do find some of them annoying. I wouldn't moan if they limited them to maybe 6 per zone plus 3 or 4 quested ones and didn't put them in hard to reach places.

[Bright-Flower]

I'll be honest, they appeal to the collector in me. I like hunting them down as I quest in a zone for the first time and seeing the diamonds fill on the aether current window. Just don't do anything like that Lochs one again.

I do agree that I don't like them on the first step of a quest chain, however. Would much rather the quest ones be kept to MSQ and stand alone quests.

I'm of two minds on the side quest ones.

On the one hand, they tend to be some of the more interesting quest lines and it's nice to have something nudge people towards them, without requiring them to do the entire quest lines if they don't want to.

But I think aether currents would also work just fine if it was just the story completion and exploration based ones involved.

[Raikai]

I'm not terribly bothered by them... Only a couple were actually problematic to get.

But I also wouldn't mind a simplification: Just the zone related MSQ completed + full map exploration (given that there wouldn't be un-reachable places) would probably be good enough

[Khalithar]

The only gating for flying as far as I'm concerned is finishing the MSQ of that particular zone. The aether currents are unnecessary.